The Making of a Criminal: Immigrants and the Prison-Industrial Complex

1. The Making of a Criminal: Immigrants and the Prison-Industrial Complex Karen Manges Douglas Sam Houston State University Rogelio Saenz Texas A&M University

2. The Criminalization of Immigrants: The Perfect Storm • Set in the context of a burgeoning US prison population; AND, • The concurrent movement towards privatization of many government services • Post 9-11 Terrorism hysteria • Anti-immigrant sentiment

3. Prison Industrial Complex • Set of bureaucratic, political and economic interests that encourage increased spending on imprisonment regardless of actual need

4. Historical & Legislative Contexts • 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act which established the bulk of drug-related mandatory minimums, including the five- and 10-year mandatory minimums for drug distribution or importation • 1986 Alien Criminal Apprehension Program which allocated more resources to locating aliens doing time in prisons & jails in order to apprehend and deport them

5. 1986 – Bureau of Prisons and INS began a joint effort to house “criminal aliens” whose criminal sentences had been completed in order to detain them • Increased refugees and aslyum seekers from Central America

6. 1996 • Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) • Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) • Drastically expanded the categories of crimes for which immigrants could be subject to mandatory detention and deportation

7. 2006 - Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE) changed policy of “catch and release” to “catch and detain”

8. Result • Tripling of the average daily detention rates from 1994 to 2001 • 5,532 to 19,533 • Doubling of detention rates from 1997 to 2007

10. Move towards privatization • Begun in earnest during the 1980s • Continues to present • 1985 – 1,345 private prison beds • 1997 – 106,940 • Of all states, Texas has the most private prisons; the largest prison capacity; and the highest number of actual prisoners held

11. Most of the privately managed facilities are in the South (74%) • Private prisons are the fastest growing segment of the PIC • Most of the growth in prison construction in Texas is to house immigrants

13. Hallinan (2001) Going Up The River: Travels in a Prison Nation “The appearance of the prison millionaire marked a turning point in American penology. Never before had it been possible in this country to become rich incarcerating other people. Now it seems commonplace (p. 174).

14. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) “Prison Privatization at its Best” http://www.correctionscorp.com/ • Founded by • Tom Beasley, former chair of the Tennessee Republican Party • Doctor R. Grants, Nashville banker and financier • Don Hutton, former head of the American Correctional Association • High profile stock holders • Honey Alexander, wife of Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander • Jeff Neff, Tennessee insurance commissioner • Ned McWherter, speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives

15. CCA Board of Directors

16. GEO Group, Inc. Global Facility Locations • North America • Australia • South Africa • United Kingdom • Source: http://www.thegeogroupinc.com/global.asp

17. Privatized Federal Immigrant Detention Centers • Aurora Contract Detention Center (Aurora, CO) [GEO] • Eloy Contract Detention Facility (Eloy, AZ) [CCA] • Houston Contract Detention Facility (Houston, TX) [CCA] • Laredo Contract Detention Center (Laredo, TX) [CCA] • Queens Contract Detention Facility (New York) [Wackenhut] • San Diego Contract Detention Center (San Diego, CA) [CCA] • T. Don Hutto Prison (Taylor, TX) [CCA] • Tacoma Contract Detention Facility (Tacoma, WA) [CCA] • Source: http://www.bordc.org/threats/detention.php • Note: These eight represent half of all federal immigrant detention centers in the country.

18. The Building of the Immigrant Detention Center Machine • “And once new detention centers are built, it is likely that the facilities will be open for business indefinitely, private prison opponents say. “’They might pitch [new prisons] as a way to solve some temporary need,’" says Libal, “’but once they build the prisons, they will always fill the beds, especially with private facilities.’" He points out that prison companies usually want to sign contracts with federal agencies that guarantee a minimum number of prisoners per month, legally binding the government to supply the bodies.” • Source: http://www.alternet.org/story/36282?page=4

19. The Latest Winner: KBR (A Halliburton Subsidiary) • “Halliburton Subsidiary Gets Contract to Add Immigration Detention Centers” • http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/04/national/04halliburton.html?ex=1296709200&en=01728da2eba059e4&ei=5088&partner=rssn • $385 million no-bid contract to build to build detention centers for possible emergency influx of immigrants.

20. The T. Don Hutto Family Detention Center Source: http://subtopia.blogspot.com/2007/02/circus-of-detention.html

21. Hutto Family Detention Center in Taylor, Texas (Photo by Jay Johnson-Castro) Source:http://latinalista.blogspot.com/2006/12/privatized-immigrant-detention.html

22. Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,253699,00.html

23. “Please Help Us”

24. Tent City in Raymondville Texas: Largest Immigration Prison Camp in the United States http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/01/AR2007020102238_3.html

26. Construction in 24 Hours

27. The Criminalization of Immigrants • Explosion of noncitizens accused of federal immigration crimes in Texas • In 2005, the district tried 4,802 defendants accused of major immigration crimes, a 155 percent increase over 2001 levels • The number of defendants charged with petty immigration offenses in southern Texas was up 260 percent between 2001 and 2004. • Majority of immigrants were charged with illegal entry illegal re-entry

28. "When I first started practicing immigration law many years ago, the only people that were prosecuted for illegal entry were people who had entered before or people who were doing something else wrong when they were entering," says Barbara Hines, director of the immigration law clinic at the University of Texas Law School. "I think that's really changed -- the people who are being prosecuted [now] are coming for the first time, who have no other criminal record, and they are being prosecuted and serving jail time." • Sentences can range from probation to up to 20 years if the individual has an "aggravated felony" on record.

29. District Attorneys in border communities decided to take more cases to end the "revolving door" of repeat immigration offenders • While an illegal entry charge usually carries no more than 30 days in jail, most noncitizens convicted of illegal re-entry receive between about four and eight years in jail if they have priors on their record, including immigration crimes • Immigration has recently surpassed drugs as the #1 federally prosecuted crime

30. What is Role of Government in When It Farms Out Its Basic Functions? • Privatized Areas • Military • Policing • Prisons • Welfare • Education • Highways • Natural Resources

31. Litany of Abuses of Detainees • “ACLU Challenges Prison-Like Conditions at Hutto Detention Center” • “2 Groups Compare Immigrant Detention Centers to Prisons” • “Allegations of Sexual Abuse at Krome Detention Center” • “Deplorable Immigrant Detention Conditions Detailed” • “Border Policy Success Strains Resources: Tent City in Texas Among Immigrant Holding Sites Drawing Criticism” • “Civil Rights Groups Announce Cooperative Effort to Highlight Unconstitutionality of Immigration Detention” • “Detention Centers for Undocumented Immigrants Fail to Meet Health, Safety Standards, Report Finds” • “Families Say Detention Centers Feel Like Prison” • “Immigrant Youth Shelter Ordered Permanently Closed: Center Still Being Investigated in Alleged Sex Abuse” • “Hell in Hutto” • “Privatized Immigrant Detention Facilities for Families Revealed to be Modern-Day Concentration Camps” • “Children Treated Like Criminals at Immigrant Detention Center” • “Immigrants Held in U.S. Often Kept in Squalor” • “NPR News Investigates Death of Jamaican Detainee in U.S. Detention Center Due to Substandard Medical Care” • “Charges of Abuse at Private Immigrant Prison” • “Lifting the Curtain: Immigrant Detention Centers in U.S. Charged with Abuse” • “U.S.: Justice Department Report Confirms 9-11 Detainee Abuses”

32. Anthony Elliot and Bryan TurnerIntroduction: towards the ontology of frailty andrights • Pseudo-stupidity • This is a way of both knowing and not-knowing, of suspecting but not seeking to check one’s suspicions

33. Impact on Human Rights • Private contractors are engaged in social control functions which has fundamentally altered the traditional social control apparatus • General assumption that privatizing government functions will generate greater efficiency • Is efficiency as judged by corporate profits the major consideration for evaluating effective prisons • Interests of corporations is to increase occupancy rates and punishing persons for longer periods of time